Frederick Borsch Our First Atom Bomb

Annotation

What could it have been like to press the switch that dropped the worlds first atomic bomb? What might have been going through the head of the All-American young man who had that responsibility on the Enola Gay? Complete with interviews with people like Colonel Paul Tibbets and those who knew Curtis LeMay and Tokyo Rose, this re-creation tells of the entire six hours that the mission took, from take-off at Tinian to that awesome moment over Hiroshima. From an interview with Dr. Theodore McCluskey S.J.: I try to imagine being in his front seat position. Can you imagine putting anyone into that position? Making any human being responsible for that? Such power over death and life? No wonder he was mixed up. No wonder he wanted to think up a plan B, or, how did he put it?to try to reshuffle the cards. I can understand why you and he would want to imagine things differently. Imagination is needed if we are going to see other possibilities in time of war.